


SURPRISE

by Honmyo_Seagull



Category: All New Wolverine, Dark Wolverine (Comics), Wolverine (Comics), X-Men (Comicverse)
Genre: Clones, Daken has bad bedside manners the morning after, Dysfunctional Family, Family Feels, Gen, M/M, Missing Scene, Protective Siblings, Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-23
Updated: 2021-01-23
Packaged: 2021-03-15 05:46:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28933494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Honmyo_Seagull/pseuds/Honmyo_Seagull
Summary: Laura Kinney, the All-New Wolverine, has acquired a brand new sister. Time to drop that bomb called Gabby on her brother Daken. Also, she's not freaking out. At all.
Relationships: Daken Akihiro & Laura Kinney
Comments: 6
Kudos: 14





	SURPRISE

**Author's Note:**

> Author’s Note: NOT MY CHARACTERS, OBVIOUSLY.   
> Set after All-New Wolverine #7 and before All-New Wolverine #21, because we never saw how Daken learned Laura had accidentally acquired a new sister for him, while he seems at least to be aware of her existence when he comes to Laura’s help on the island.

She takes her cell phone on the emergency stairs outside. The sun is rising, the light golden on the horizon. Even the streets are quiet. It’s soothing. Gabby is still asleep inside, sprawled in a mess of knick-knacks in the bedroom. Her room now, Laura guesses.

She dials the number, patiently waits for her interlocutor to pick up.

“Hn.”

“Daken. I have a clone, so you have another sister.”

The silence is stony at the other end of the line.

“Surprise,” she adds, a bit belatedly.

“Laura, you hang too much with those damn X-kids, they’re ruining you.” His voice is strained.

“You’re deflecting.”

“Run that by me again. I think I heard wrong.” He muffles a yawn, she thinks.

“Were you… sleeping?”

“Some people have a life, some people have _fun_. I came home, hm,” she hears the soft ruffle of the bed sheets, “two hours ago. I have _company_. I don’t even understand why you don’t make the most of it. You’re basically a kid. Go be wild, make me proud.”

“You’re deflecting again. Ditch them. I need to talk to you.”

He sighs. “One moment.”

She hears Daken’s voice in the background.“Wake up.”She hears the telltale **snikt**. She hears a scream. She grips the phone and stops breathing.

“ ‘M back.”

“Did you kill them,” she flatly asks, this way she has when her questions don’t sound exactly like questions. _Do not panic, do_ not _panic._

“No, Laura. Usually, when you need them to leave when they’ve overstayed their welcome, you just show them the claws and they run to the door. Most of the time. Remember the tip, it might be useful to you, one day. Only the kinky ones stay and gawk. This one was disgustingly vanilla.” There is a mountain of distaste in his voice. “You’re lucky I already got what I wanted from him.”

_Don’t ask_ , she thinks.

“Now, talk,” Daken prompts.

She takes a deep breath. And she does just that. It flows out of her, she doesn’t remember the last time she said so much in so little time. It’s all rushed. She hopes she’s clear, is not sure.

“She wants to stay,” she finishes. “With me.” And here is the reason of her call. “When he found me, Logan said it would be better for me to stay at the school.”

“Logan,” Daken sneers. But Laura dutifully ignores him.

“And he left me there. He left _me_ ,” she calmly explains, as if it still didn’t hurt.

“Laura, why tell me.”

“She wants to stay.”

“I heard the first time.” He sounds a little annoyed, maybe distracted. She strains her ears. She hears a door creak, and a few seconds later the sound of water from a faucet. “Wait. You’re considering it. Keeping your very own clone.”

The water stops. A drawer. It rattles. Utensils? Then, suddenly all sounds stop. Complete silence. Laura waits for a full minute.

“Laura, are you asking me for advice?” He sounds like it’s the most bizarre thing.

“No. Yes. Maybe.”

“And what makes you think I care about your clone problem?” he snaps.

Sometimes, the best way to draw Daken _in_ is to ignore what he says and wait him _out_.

“You know that my first impulse will be to tell you to do the opposite of what _dear old dad_ did, anyway. You needn’t call.”

She still bides her time.

“Fine!” he finally explodes. “You pity it, don’t keep it. You feel responsible for it, don’t keep it. You want to change it, don’t keep it. You want to save it, don’t keep it. You want to protect the world from it, don’t keep it.”

“Daken, I–” _already told her it was OK to stay._

“It’s a simple question, Laura. How did you feel this morning? Would you have preferred to wake up alone in the peace and quiet of your house, or did it make you feel good to smell this clone of yours all over your home?” There’s a strange gravity in the question. Like it’s simple and loaded at the same time. “You love the clone, keep the clone. Not the idea of Sister, Family. Don’t think I don’t know how it appeals to you. _The clone_ , the way _it_ actually is, as _it_ comes.”

Here. Now. That’s what she wants to know. Why she called:

“But, what if I intend to love her, but… I can’t give… enough.”

The image of Logan riding away on his motorcycle is seared in her mind. Noise resumes in what she thinks is Daken’s kitchen.

“You are making breakfast,” she remarks.

“Yes.”

_“_ Hmmm, coffee _,”_ she groans. It would be nice, she thinks in the part of her mind that is not currently freaking out. Laura almost can taste the bitterness on her tongue, but she is not ready to leave the metallic stairs right away. Not much left in her pantry anyway, should buy some. She is suddenly struck by how domestic it is. Doing the groceries. She likes that.

“Tea,” Daken’s voice answers. In the background she hears the sound of water about to boil.

“Tea?”

“I’m half-Japanese, Laura. Half of my blood is tea.” He has this tone. She can hear him roll his eyes. This is the only juvenile gesture she ever caught him at.

“I didn’t know you liked it that much. You must have hated the breakfasts on Mystique’s ship.”

“It was kind of the last of my concerns on Mystique’s ship.”

Laura worries her lip. Vulnerable, without his healing factor, without his arm, without his eye… Yes, obviously.

“Gabby never asks for anything.” _Except stay._

“That its name?” The question is non-committal.

_“Her_ name,” Laura corrects in stride. “Gabrielle. I don’t even know what she would really prefer for breakfast.”

“You’ll learn. You care to learn.” And without transition, “I killed for a rare blend of tea once or twice.”

One second she’s stricken.

“Ho, come on, Laura. They never made you kill for reasons even more petty? Or even gratuitously?”

“But I never _chose_ to _kill_ for _tea_ ,” she grits through her teeth, horrified.

“Very expensive tea,” he blandly amends.

Laura feels frozen on the spot. Unsettled to the chore. But inside, beyond the initial shock… _Something’s wrong. Think, think. This is Daken. What’s the endgame? What does he want? Why would he want to push you away? Oh._

She sighs. Deeply. Making sure he hears it. To make him pay attention.

“I have a brother _and_ a sister now. I’m not choosing,” she quietly admonishes.

“OK,” he says, after a beat.

They stay silent something like two, three minutes, but none of them thinks to hang up. She can clearly imagine her brother puttering about in a kitchen, the phone cradled between his ear and his shoulder. She hears the sound of porcelain clinking. The pouring of tea.

“Trust me, Laura, you are not like _him_ ,” Daken says, at last. “I would know. You don’t fail the people you love.”

The decision was made, already, in spite of her misgivings. She had said that much to Gabby.

But the quiet certainty in Daken’s voice is something that braces her, supports her, makes her… ready. At his best, Logan was that to her. But not always. She can admit, now, that he failed her too, sometimes. And he is not here anymore. She had never thought she’d have that again. She leans back against the brick wall, more relaxed than when she dialled a few minutes ago.

“Want to come to the flat? Meet her?”

“Don’t push it. I’ll have nothing to do with the twice removed clone.”

Daken hangs up. Just like that. But she is used to Daken’s ways; nothing is easy with him. Never. But she always wears him out eventually, doesn’t she?

And Laura hasn’t told him about Bellona being alive somewhere either. Yet. (One sister at a time.)

_Or_ the real wolverine.

***** The END *****


End file.
